THE DISTRACTIONS
The End Of The Pier
OCCULTATION, OUT 27 AUGUST
Their second album. Just 32 years after the first...
The runts of Manchester's post-punk litter, The Distractions disbanded a year after their debut album failed to set the world alight in 1980. Yet such is its enduring quality that its creators' unnoticed demise has become increasingly mourned. Now, leader Steve Perrin and singer Mike Finney have added a trio of new Mancunians and reconvened, albeit on a necessarily part-time basis, since Perrin resides in New Zealand. Aside from the beefed-up production, it's as if they and their sunny-sounding tales of doomed relationships, quiet heartbreak and self-flagellation have never been away. The combination of Finney's super-rich, impossibly rueful voice and Perrin's ear for a glorious, understated melody reaches its zenith on the hushed twinkle of Too Late To Change, the tearjerking Wise and the irresistible The Summer I Met You. How we've unknowingly missed them. ****
JOHN AIZLEWOOD
DOWNLOAD: Wise | The Summer I Met You | Girl Of The Year | Too Late To Change
